When I mentioned that I was attending a writers' conference to a coworker (who is clearly no wordsmith, judging from the time we labor on her simple email responses), she first asked me "Do you mean riding or writing?" along with the proper horsey and writey motions.
One glance at me would reveal what a stupid question this is. Renee is not a person who has ever been within riding distance of a horse and plans to keep it that way.
And then the second question was "Do you have aspirations we need to know about?" I suppose that means aspirations which would mean chucking all my belongings into the nearest box or bag, scribbling "Take the job and shove it" on an available scrap, and marching in a dramatic, impressive, and satisfying exit. The short answer: Uh, no.
I don't aim that high. I do daydream about it, but live firmly in the reality of working a day job to cover the bills. My aspirations do include publishing. I want success and some money would be fabulous as well. After a few unkind words about an older romance and women's fiction writer who has had an amazingly successful career and made it a policy to give back, she reached the end of her conversation. My answer was that many writers would kill to have said writer's career. Who wouldn't enjoy being able to support herself doing what she loves?
Clearly, this is not a reader. And she has no concept of why anyone would sit down and write a book. I run into that alot and that's without saying that I write romance. I've been witness to the "romance is smut" sneer more than once within the rarified circles of literary fiction writers at these local conferences. I did once see a nice little lady poet whispering with a scandalized friend when two erotica writers showed up with their books covered in shirtless in cowboys. I still laugh about it. Some people just don't get it, can't understand why romance works, why people want to spend their time writing happily ever after.
I don't understand why we can't just agree to disagree. I don't understand people who...judge books by their covers. I mean, I wonder how much the literary group knows about romance (or mystery or science fiction or...any of these genres that readers, real readers, devour).
Currently, my aspirations are earth bound: I want to finish my fourth complete manuscript. I'm going to do it, too. Then I'll take aim at something else. Yes, I have aspirations.
